He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love

Paul encourages the believers to be filled with knowledge, understanding and wisdom of the Word and to live worthy of God. He encourages us to have patience and longsuffering mixed with joy. Paul teaches about Jesus being the Son of God and His glory as the Creator. Jesus is the Exalted One and the church, that is the believers, belong to Him. Though we were once alienated, it is through Christ's sacrifice that we are redeemed and become blameless before God.


Paul reveals a mystery of God to believers whom God now wants them to know - this mystery is the fact that salvation includes the Gentiles as well. This is quite a revelation to the Israelites in general as most would have thought that God's salvation is specially reserved for them. So the call is now to all believers to preach the gospel to all people.





Colossians 1
Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.[a]


Their Faith in Christ

3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit,[b] as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.


Preeminence of Christ

9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood,[c] the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.


Reconciled in Christ

19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Sacrificial Service for Christ

24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which[d] is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

Until the Spirit is Poured Upon Us From on High

This chapter starts with a description of the reign of a righteous king. People will begin to see and listen, to understand and speak plainly. However, there will still be foolish people and ungodly people. But God will ensure that their wicked plans are destroyed.

The second paragraph warns the people, especially the women and daughters against complacency. It describes the coming of some troubling times, followed by mourning. Then cities and forts will be deserted. Following this, God will send His Spirit, and the fields will be fruitful again. Hence God does not leave His creation nor His people in desolation as He has a plan to save them. The result of the pouring of the Spirit is that justice and righteousness will prevail in the land. The effect of this would be quietness and peace throughout the land.


Isaiah 32
A Reign of Righteousness

1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
2 A man will be as a hiding place from the wind,
And a cover from the tempest,
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3 The eyes of those who see will not be dim,
And the ears of those who hear will listen.
4 Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.
5 The foolish person will no longer be called generous,
Nor the miser said to be bountiful;
6 For the foolish person will speak foolishness,
And his heart will work iniquity:
To practice ungodliness,
To utter error against the Lord,
To keep the hungry unsatisfied,
And he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil;
He devises wicked plans
To destroy the poor with lying words,
Even when the needy speaks justice.
8 But a generous man devises generous things,
And by generosity he shall stand.


Consequences of Complacency

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
10 In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.
12 People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
14 Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
15 Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.


The Peace of God’s Reign

16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
18 My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
19 Though hail comes down on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.
20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

Your Wife Shall Be Like a Fruitful Vine

A short psalm that contains the key definitions of how to be blessed and the results of blessing.

The straightforward way to be blessed by the LORD is: 1) Fear God 2) Walk in His ways.

The result of the LORD's blessings on us are:
- our work will be fruitful and we will be happy
- the wife would bear numerous children
- the joy of having children around us




Psalm 128
Blessings of Those Who Fear the Lord
A Song of Ascents.

1 Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.

2 When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.

4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.

5 The Lord bless you out of Zion,
And may you see the good of Jerusalem
All the days of your life.

6 Yes, may you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!

Promise of Blessing and Retribution

Follow God and the blessings wil
l be upon us. Reject or disobey Him and the wrath of God will be upon us. These are the things non-believers would hate to hear. Even modern believers may find this hard to accept or explain to their friends. But Scripture says that God is unchanging - He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So how can we reconcile this fact with the promises of Jesus?

The bad news first, the wrath of God has not changed. But by the grace of God, if we repent and commit to Jesus, then the wrath of God for us has been transferred and paid up fully by Jesus. In short, those who feel the wrath of God are those who rejects Jesus. So wait, this bad news is not in fact all that bad, because Jesus has turned it into Good news. But wait there's more .....

Now for the good news. The promises of Jesus is by far greater than the promises about to be listed below to the children of Israel in the Old Testament. Some of the promises of Jesus, without going into detail, nor giving the complete list include, being in Heaven for eternity, being adopted into God's kingdom and enjoying full inheritance as Sons of God, and much more.

But here are some of the promises made in the Old Testament and I believe are still valid to believers today. So the conditions, which are still valid today are: not worship any idols or anything else besides God and keep the Sabbaths. In modern day equivalents, idols may be other religions' idols or committing to another cause more than God. Sabbath is keeping one out of seven days for God in a practical manner, ie, physically going to church is a definite one.

Modern day promises of blessing equivalents
- Our income producing work will be blessed in effectiveness, yield and increase. Our work will be enjoyable and easy.
- we will have peace in our country, state, neighbourhood.
- we will enjoy fellowship and relationship with God, we will walk with God and He will be with us. (ie. Holy Spirit)

Modern day consequences of the wrath of God equivalents
- our work will be unproductive even though we put much effort into it.
- we will live in terror of something
- we will be faced with diseases
- our pride will be broken for us (instead of us willingly giving up our pride)
- our enemies will overcome us at any levels.
- we will not have fellowship with God.
- our possessions will be destroyed.
- Ultimately when our sins are on the national level, then our penalties would be on the national level too. That is, we may be invaded and taken away from our lands. This may be hard to believe for modern developed nations. But it was not too long ago (WWI, WWII) that developed nations were conquered and millions lost their lives. Today, some undeveloped nations are still facing this reality.

However, even the worst of sinners is not without hope, as it is written: "
 40 ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;
if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—

 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;
I will remember the land.


Leviticus 26

Promise of Blessing and Retribution

 1 ‘You shall not make idols for yourselves;
neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves;
nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it;
for I am the LORD your God.
 2 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary:
I am the LORD.

 3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them,

 4 then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

 5 Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing;
you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid;
I will rid the land of evil beasts,
and the sword will not go through your land.

 7 You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.

 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight;
your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.

 9 ‘For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.

 10 You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new.

 11 I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you.

 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves;
I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you walk upright.

 14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments,

 15 and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant,

 16 I also will do this to you:
I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart.
And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

 17 I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies.
Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

 18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

 19 I will break the pride of your power;
I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain;
for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

 21 ‘Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins.

 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number;
and your highways shall be desolate.

 23 ‘And if by these things you are not reformed by Me, but walk contrary to Me,

 24 then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

 25 And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant;
when you are gathered together within your cities I will send pestilence among you;
and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

 26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

 27 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,

 28 then I also will walk contrary to you in fury;
and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters.

 30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols;
and My soul shall abhor you.

 31 I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas.

 32 I will bring the land to desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

 33 I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you;
your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

 34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land;
then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.

 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—
for the time it did not rest on your sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

 36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;
the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee;
they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.

 37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues;
and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

 39 And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;
also in their fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.

 40 ‘But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

 41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;
if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt—

 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;
I will remember the land.

 43 The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;
they will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.

 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I am the LORD their God.

 45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the LORD.’”

46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the LORD made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.